Essential Skills Advantage (A Schoolhouse Crew Review)

Our homeschool is not much into busy work.  The kids hate "pointless" writing and if they see a packet of papers  they instantly balk.  However, place them in front a computer and a mouse and they will happily work on anything that I throw at them.  However, I prefer for those types of programs to be supplemental to what we're currently studying to help reinforce what they are learning.  For the last few weeks, Ashleigh and Garrett have been working on various skills in geography, science and language arts using the Complete Home Learning Suite from Essential Skills Advantage (ESA).  ESA was generous and provided both kids a full one year subscription to their service.

The Complete Home Learning Suite is an online browser based supplemental curriculum that provides a yearly subscription.  Geared for grades Kindergarten through 6th Grade, the Learning Suite offers more than 14,000 online activities that help reinforce (as well as provide remedial lessons for) skills in Reading, Language and Grammar, Math, Science and Geography, depending on the grade level.

• Reading activities for grades K-6
• Language and Grammar Activities for grades K-6
• Math activities for grades K-6
• Science activities for grades K-3
• Geography activities for grades 4-6

Parents do not need to select a grade at the time of purchase and can switch between all skill levels.



Simple to use, students log into their accounts and are brought to kid friendly main menu.  Color coded with bright colors as well as simple icons to indicate subjects, kids can easily maneuver through the menu and go to the subject they wish to work on.

Colorful Kid Friendly Menu is Easy to Understand and Navigate.

After making a selection, a second menu then offers the child a selection of grade level options available for that subject (for example, the Geography category only offers options for grades 4-6).. Once a grade selection is made, another menu of subcategories is supplied which narrows down the subject into programs or smaller subjects to be worked on.

From the Programs Menu, students are taken to a different menu type that shows the various activities for that Program.  From there they can quickly tell how many activities are available, which activities they have previously worked on as well as how many uncompleted activities are left in that section.   Once they click the activity section, the program automatically brings them to where they left off.

The actual activities are like mini quizzes or tests to show competency in the material. There is no lesson taught or videos to watch that explain the concepts shown - hence why this would be a supplement to be used in addition  with another curriculum.   However, if the student needs hint or a quick "refresher" on the material by clicking the purple gavel when provided.  This will bring up a short abbreviated lesson that provides just enough material to help them finish the activity.

Since the program is simple enough for both Ashleigh and Garrett to use unassisted, I really appreciate the reporting feature.   This allows me to see what both kids have worked on and how they have done with it and how they are progressing through the activities.  It also tells me how much time they have spent while doing each section.   It also allows me to see that Garrett REALLY likes working on the math (and hasn't done anything else) while Ashleigh tends to jump around.

I really like that this program is set up in such a way that Ash and Garrett can both click their name and quickly work with the program without much help from me.  However, that is not to say that there hasn't been a few hick-ups.   Ashleigh is a bit of a perfectionist and on occasion answers were marked wrong when they were correct.  On another question, the narrative instructions did not play and even clicking the repeat would not play it, resulting in Ashleigh having to just guess an answer t move on.  Another issue was that she was instructed to click on an arrow to switch between maps in one of the geography sections but the arrow was not visible which was very frustrating to her. We did think maybe it was a browser issue and so we tried to load the same activity with a different browser but experienced the same thing.  Luckily, there was a small amount of the arrow exposed and we were able to click on it and move on with the activity.

The Complete Learning Suite has been a wonderful addition to our curriculum and has been a great replacement for typical "busy work", while still accomplishing the same reinforcement.  Both kids have enjoyed working with this program and I love the fact they are able to work on it independently without me.  The minor glitches that we experienced are to be expected to some degree and considering as many activities they completed, being able to count on one hand the glitches we encountered was expected.

For more information about Essential Skills Advantage and their Complete Home Learning Suite be sure to visit them at their website/blog or on the following social media platforms.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/skillsadvantage/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/SkillsAdvantage @SkillsAdvantage

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/SkillsAdvantage

Google +: https://plus.google.com/u/0/+BuyESA/posts

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/skillsadvantage

Blog: https://learnwithesa.com/blog/

Mama Needs A Do Over (A Book Review)

There are three typical types of parenting books.

First, there are those books that are very dry and very technical written by someone with a PhD who usually tries to fit as many Latin derived 7 syllable words into their writing as possible.  These books are generally written for other people with PhDs and are not written for you to understand.

Second, there are those books that seem extremely condescending, as if written by the "perfect" parent who have a whole hoard of Stepford kids who would never think about getting dirty or trying to flush your cell phone down the toilet.    These books are great for other parents with Stepford children but not so great for the parent who's stressed out and at the end of their rope, because lets face it, if you're grabbing a parenting book, you're NOT that family.

Finally, there's the occasional book where the writer, typically a mother just like you, details some of the very same everyday struggled that you face - who knows how it feels to open your eyes in the morning and wish you didn't have to get up at all because you know it's not going to go write. You start reading this type of book and you think to yourself "this person gets it"..

Well, Mama Needs a Do-Over by Lisa Pennington is this third type of book.  She's not perfect, her kids are not perfect and she's willing to admit this to the reader. She does not pretend to have all the answers to how to make your kids perfect but instead taps into other resources from other authors to provide a collection of advice to help make your less than perfect life much more manageable.  Each chapter offers questions to answer in a journal to help focus in on goals and dreams for MOM rather than the lil heathens tearing up your living room, because while you cannot change other people, you can change your own behavior and thinking.  Using examples from her own life , Lisa does a great job of explaining how looking at an impossible problem differently can lend to a solution.

I found Lisa Pennington very relate-able and down to earth. She is not all "me me me" as some other parenting books I have read as of recently but instead sincerely wants to lend advice to help other frazzled moms. Her tone is friendly and upbeat as opposed to condescending and preachy; reading this book is more like having a conversation with a girlfriend about your kids over coffee rather than sitting in a lecture room with the head Soccer Mom telling you why her kids are perfect and yours are not.

I would highly recommend this book if you find that you have more stressful days then not..

Desperately Seeking Patience

If there's one thing in this world that means more to me than anything else in existence, it's my kids.  They are the one thing that will represent me after I am dead and gone and how I raise them will forever influence who they are and how they will influence their own children later down the road.

But, I have a terrible secret I want to share with you..

As much as I love my kids.. there are days that I do not like them very much.

There, I said it.  There are days I seriously question if I might live to see these heathens grow to adulthood because I'm one turn away from crazy land. 

I once read that "Parenthood is a long term investment, not a short term loan".. Well, let me be honest, if any bank gave me a APR equivalent to the stress levels these kids tend to create,  I would had told the lender to shove it.

I'm willing to bet you know exactly what I mean too because I'm willing to guess that there are times you feel exactly the same way..

It's those days when absolutely nothing goes right and everything that could possible go wrong will.

I had a day much like that yesterday.  I woke up with a terrible toothache that pained me something fierce.  At 40 years old, one of my wisdom teeth decided to make an appearance. It hadn't given me any trouble, however I guess I had brushed a little too aggressively the night prior and my gums were not happy.  Already prone to severe migraine headaches, the throbbing in the back of my jaw only added to the pounding in my head.    I knew it was going to be a hard time getting through our school day.

How Garrett usually is for school.. Ready to do his work.

Somehow I managed to get through reading aloud our chapter out of "Little House on the Prairie" and had sat down at the table with the kids for them to read aloud their sentence selection for their copy work.   The sentence was fairly easy - "So Laura and Mary picked flowers from the weeds and they took the flower to ma, instead of a gopher."

 Garrett, however, did not feel like reading, regardless to how easy it might be, and had one of his meltdowns..

When Garrett has a meltdown, he completely shuts down. When he was younger, he use to throw himself backwards against the ground and for years he had a permanent goose egg on the back of his head because of it.   As he has gotten older and has been able to start articulating his frustration, the violence of his meltdowns has diminished but it is still a very emotional ordeal for him.  He cries, deep heartwrenching sobs and he screams and he is inconsolable.   For this particular meltdown, Garrett proceeded to tell me he was "scared of reading".

I wanted to lose it.. My mouth hurt, my head hurt and here he was throwing a complete fit over the word "So" and this was just the first hour of school for us. Sad to say, I usually do lose it. I hate to admit it, but I tend to raise my voice more than I should at my kids..  I don't hit them, I don't curse at them and I don't scream at them, but I do tend to raise my voice in some desperate attempt to get their attention.

Here's where I'll make the mandatory excuse.. I come from a family of yellers.. Both of my parents were Marines and they yelled, especially my father.  Not that I listened to them any more than my kids currently listen to me if I raise my voice.

You know what they say the definition of a fool is?  Someone who tries the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. I admit, I very often play the fool.   My kids are so use to it, it doesn't phase them at all..  How bad of a mom does that make me, to know that I have hollered enough that my kids don't even bat an eyelash when it happens?  This realization makes me feel like The World's Worst Mom.

I know I couldn't keep it up.. and I've been asking God to help me with patience.. But I always seem to resort to losing it rather than letting go..

Yesterday, " I Let Go and Let God. "  I was at the end of my rope, Garrett was at the end of his and we both needed something more than my bellowing like a mule which would only escalate the situation more.

I closed my eyes and I prayed something along the lines of "Lord, give me patience to keep my cool and help Garrett to see that I love him"..   I should mention that while my eyes are close, my youngest daughter is sitting there trying to lift up my eyelid and saying "mom, wake up" in my ear.

Very calmly, with my eyes still closed, I pulled my sobbing son to me and wrapped my arm around him.. Then I opened my eyes and looked into his, already red from crying and I kissed his head.. I explained to him that reading was important and that it was hard but that I knew he could do it..

I didn't yell. I didn't holler.  I didn't get all blustered. I sat with him, my arm around him as we very slowly read our sentence.  What typically takes us about 3 minutes ended up taking us close to 20, but in the end, Garrett read that sentence with minimal help and he was actually pretty proud of himself to have done it.

And I was proud of myself for not jumping off the handle like I am prone to do and instead put it in God's hands and as he promised, he was there for me.

Yes, I may not like my kids at times.. But boy do I love them.. And with God's help by finding the patience I need, hopefully I can show it to them in much more productive ways then raising my voice in frustration.